As that sage philosopher Rahm Emmanuel stated during the financial crisis of 2008, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not before." When the tribe stops irrigating the golf course, I'll stop watering the lawn.
In the case of the repeated City of Port Angeles summer water shortages I would like to better understand why conserving water now will matter, except to practice conservation measures in case one is clueless about ways to use less water when river flows cease feeding the system.
The City has water storage tanks that have capacity for a day or two of normal use by residents. That water comes from either the city's Ranney well 60 feet under the Elwha River or directly from the river via the intake constructed when dams were removed.
The Ranney well water is considered subject to surface influence. If the river is not flowing it is not recharging that well. When river flow get too low, the new intake has no water to take in.
The flows are not at that stage now. The storage tanks can still be pumped full with the flow that remains. Conserving now just means less pumping for the city while there's accessible water. If flows get too low, no amount of conservation will sustain the City's residents longer than the storage tanks last - a couple days maybe.
So, is conserving now just for practice for a real shortage? Is the river flow already so low that the Ranney well and the intake only see water at night during natural cycles when uoriver vegetation is not sucking water?
If our city depends on an undammed river fed by disappearing glaciers, what is the plan to insure a future water supply?
Hey Jeff, we need to talk about these findings at the next Grange meeting!
As that sage philosopher Rahm Emmanuel stated during the financial crisis of 2008, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not before." When the tribe stops irrigating the golf course, I'll stop watering the lawn.
Don’t forget about the Casino and the
Tribal center they water all the time too!
Jeff- Good morning 😃
I tried to link this to your YouTube channel last night.
It’s gone.
Here it is again.
The previous Sequim Public works director stated “we have enough water”.
He was replaced with “Chris Goins” from Alaska.
He (Chris) has to move his family here…
out of 40-50 applications.. they chose him.
Read his bio.
💥
https://www.myclallamcounty.com/2026/03/25/public-works-director-sequim-has-enough-ground-water-to-meet-future-demand/
In the case of the repeated City of Port Angeles summer water shortages I would like to better understand why conserving water now will matter, except to practice conservation measures in case one is clueless about ways to use less water when river flows cease feeding the system.
The City has water storage tanks that have capacity for a day or two of normal use by residents. That water comes from either the city's Ranney well 60 feet under the Elwha River or directly from the river via the intake constructed when dams were removed.
The Ranney well water is considered subject to surface influence. If the river is not flowing it is not recharging that well. When river flow get too low, the new intake has no water to take in.
The flows are not at that stage now. The storage tanks can still be pumped full with the flow that remains. Conserving now just means less pumping for the city while there's accessible water. If flows get too low, no amount of conservation will sustain the City's residents longer than the storage tanks last - a couple days maybe.
So, is conserving now just for practice for a real shortage? Is the river flow already so low that the Ranney well and the intake only see water at night during natural cycles when uoriver vegetation is not sucking water?
If our city depends on an undammed river fed by disappearing glaciers, what is the plan to insure a future water supply?